


Have Some Patience

by telm_393



Category: Ant-Man (Movies), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bittersweet, Fluff and Angst, Homesickness, Introspection, Kissing, M/M, On the Run, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-18
Updated: 2017-08-18
Packaged: 2018-12-17 01:12:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11840877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/telm_393/pseuds/telm_393
Summary: During a short stay in Wakanda while on the run, Sam wonders if any of the fugitive Avengers will ever be able to go home. Well, at least he’s sitting right beside the man who makes all the pain worthwhile. Almost.





	Have Some Patience

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if anything's happened to Joss this after Civil War, but if it has: this is not canon compliant with anything after Civil War.
> 
> This is for my hc-bingo "on the run".

"Do you think we'll ever be able to leave this place?” Sam asks in a distracted murmur, shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip with Scott. They’re on top of a huge, shining ebony rock, their legs stretched out in front of them. Sam’s head is tilted up to look at the sky.

"We have before,” Scott says, not quite answering the real question in there. _Do you think we’ll ever be able to stop running?_

Sam catches his deflection and says, "You know what I mean. You think we'll ever be able to live somewhere without the threat of being sent to that floating middle finger to the Geneva Convention?"

Scott shrugs. "I don't know. But it's not like we don't know how to hide. Going on the run—really going on the run—it’s not out of the question, you know that. We can leave for wherever you want.”

“Yeah,” Sam agrees. “Anywhere except home.”

"You know we might never go back,” Scott says. “If we stay fugitives, it’ll always be too dangerous. They know us way too well. But someday we’ll probably be able to stop running. I just…feel like that’s true.

"I don’t know. You're all my family, but I’ve got...other family too, and we haven’t been able to talk in a while.”

Scott closes his eyes for a second in that way he does when he lets a wave of pain wash over him. When he opens them again, he says, “I know. You know I know. But the future’s not written in stone, and—look, why not just assume this isn’t forever? That’d be easier, and there’s nothing wrong with making things easier. Why not just assume we'll go back someday? I mean, I get it. America's fucked us both over big-time, but it's still..."

"Home."

"And eventually home will welcome us back. They’ll figure out we aren’t criminals for what we did and we'll go back. I think that's something you have to believe, Sam. It's only been—what? Six months?”

"And two days. Been in Wakanda a week.”

Four months, and they’ve hidden at safe houses in three different countries, but they always end up back in Wakanda for Bucky, and Sam is always happiest here, he thinks. It’s the closest thing any of them have to home, a place that welcomes them, and he and Scott—they got together here, maybe a few weeks in.

Everything about their new life began in Wakanda. 

“It’s that long, when you think about it,” Scott tries, snapping Sam out of his thoughts. “None of it is.”

"Or it's longer than it seems," Sam says softly. "What are we even doing here? What can we even do like this?”

"Watch the world spin on without us, I guess…but—”

Sam huffs out a laugh. "That's not very comforting, man.”

"I wasn't done yet, have some patience. I was gonna say, but at least we have each other."

Sam looks at Scott and Scott looks back, holding eye contact. 

Sam watches Scott like a TV, like he's the most interesting thing in the world, because right now he is. 

He takes in the crooked half-smile on Scott's face, not sure if he's imagining the hint of bitterness in it, the same feeling of this-isn’t-how-my-life-was-supposed-to-be, drinks in the soft affection in Scott's eyes, the way it’s cut with a sadness he tries so hard to hide. Scott looks different from how he did when Sam met him. When Sam didn’t know him. His dark hair's curled from the humidity, frizzy and damp, and he’s lost weight and there are more lines on his face than there were before. And Sam knows that the man Scott is seeing right now, he's changed in pretty similar ways. His hair's grown out a bit and has curled as much as Scott's, his cheekbones are sharper when he looks in the mirror, and he's starting to look his age, closer to forty than thirty. 

But he has to be fair too, to this life, to this place. Has to admit that there are more laugh lines on their faces than anyone might expect, and they’ve found some peace here, and Sam hasn't had someone to sleep with in what's probably quite literally forever, except now he does and it means that in spite of everything he sleeps so much better now, and the others are here and they still go out to help people every once in a while and there really is a chance that someday they'll go back home, and even if they don’t…

Even if they don’t, they’ve made a new home by building a family with each other, and even if it's still not complete, it's enough most of the time.

Most importantly, at least to Sam, he and Scott never would've started this thing between them if they hadn't fucked up their lives for the greater good.

That’s something Sam’s more than sure of as Scott laces their fingers together, and he knows that their time here isn’t a waste, if only because of that. 

Scott leans forward just as Sam does, and they meet in the middle. 

The kiss is gentle, comforting. 

Both of them know what the other wants, that this isn't the time for heated kisses, for making out like teenagers in front of the TV until someone walks in and complains about the assault on their eyes with the same intonation a kid might use when they remember that their parents aren’t exactly celibate. 

Right now, just this is good, these soft, easy, lingering kisses, right where they are, surrounded by soft emerald grass and colorful flowers, far enough from the place where they live now that it's not even in their line of sight, just as as the sun sets, right at that moment before it dips low enough that its light starts fading, when it's shining directly in front of them instead. It envelops them in light as fading golden rays burst from the half-sphere of the white-gold sun that’s so brilliant against the darkening blue of the sky. 

The Wakandan sunset is something to behold, and it brings Sam peace for at least a moment every time he experiences it, makes him believe that this is all enough, especially when he's with Scott, bathed in light in a way that makes him feel, with more whimsy than he thinks he was ever capable of before, like they're two avenging angels meeting again just after a battle, tasting each other for the first time in ages, melting into the anticlimactic familiarity of unflavored chapstick and cinnamon candy.

And as they deepen the kiss, Sam thinks: _well, we couldn't have found a better place to fall in love if we'd tried._


End file.
